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This article focuses on the role played by local associations for asbestos victims in access to compensation, particularly regarding the choice between the Compensation Fund (Fiva) and lawsuits. It relies on recent literature on “legal intermediaries” on the one side and on the role of “exculpation” in the processes of victimization on the other side, a concept that characterizes the fact that victims’ movements discharge themselves from any form of responsibility for the misfortunes that have occurred. Based on fifteen interviews with the leaders of three victims’ associations, the study shows how the possibility and nature of the exculpation processes of association leaders, most of whom were former union activists and involved to varying degrees in the “controlled use” of asbestos, influences the choice of mechanisms. This article then encourages to better analyze of the normative work of legal intermediaries carried out in interaction with the victims and the lawyers to understand how transfers of responsibility are built regarding compensation processes.